I see some similarities between the Ravens and the recent Giants Super Bowl winners — inconsistent but big-armed QB, veteran defense that’s probably better than its regular season stats. But, still, I have no real reason to doubt the analysis suggesting that the 49ers are significantly better, so I’d lay the points and take them.

Actually I love match-ups like this – two teams I don’t have strong feelings about one way or the other. I can enjoy the game and not get upset if “my” team loses.

My nightmare SB would be Cowboys v. Raiders … I’d have to root for a plague in the stadium (note to red-staters: that is a metaphor and I don’t actually root for that … maybe something quicker). Actually, came pretty close to that last year with NYG (city of the Yankees) vs. Pats (football fans most like Yankee fans) … I rooted for NYG but only barely.

I’m not even sure I’m going to watch the game, since I don’t care much for either team.

All I know is, I’m tired of Ray Lewis and his act. That ‘Ode to me, Me, ME!!!” before every game, is really tiresome. So, I guess that I’ll root for the ‘Niners,’ since they never moved from one city to another like the Ravens, and I don’t want to watch Ray-ray’s ‘Boogaloo to the Glory of Me, Myself, and I,” dance, if the Ravens win.
“Icky” had his shuffle.
Lewis’s act is just plain icky.
And I can hardly wait ’til he shuffles off into the sunset, since this will be his last game as a player.

If another player tried to do what Lewis does, he’d be fined – maybe suspended.

And you know the announcers gonna spend more than half of the game waxing poetic about him.

Now, I’m not sayin’ that he wasn’t a great Linebacker.
He clearly was.
I’m just sayin’, that he couldn’t carry Lawrence Taylor’s jockstrap.
One coach, prior to his team’s game against the Giants, when he was asked what his offensive game-plan was, said, “Our offensive
game-plan? We have to find a way to stop number 56 from ruining our whole offensive game – that’s our plan.”

And besides, at this stage of his career, Ray Lewis couldn’t cover
anyone sent out of the backfield – not if it was Tiny Tim, hobbling along on his crutch, or the Tiny Tim who pranced around with a ukelele, and sang “Tip-toe Through the Tulips.”

TINY TIM AT THE 30… THE 20… THE 10… THE FIVE…TOUCHDOWN!!!
AND HE SPIKES HIS CRUTCH/UKULELE!!!

If you see racism in what I wrote, then it’s because you wanted to see it.

It’s not racism.
His act is obnoxious.
Pure and simple.
Like I said, if some other player – black, white, red, yellow, brown, or any color in between – did his impression of Lewis’s self-glorifying, self-satisfied, egomaniacal dance routine before, and/or after, any game in the NFL (remember, it’s the ‘No Fun League?’), he would face some sort of punishment.

I hate the grandstanding and self-agrandizing in sports nowadays.
If you made a touchdown, hit a home run, made a tre in the last second, or shot the puck through the goalies legs, or made a tackle, ran the last leg of the 400m relay, to end the game or event – act like you’ve done it before.

Sorry if that bothers you.
Especially if you find that racist.
It ain’t racist – it’s “Old School!”
And, at less than 4 weeks until I hit 55, I’m getting pretty old.

That’s great, but the fact remains that it’s just inaccurate. At this point, the dance has far more to do with the fans who want to see it (Amani Toomer’s deep understanding of Baltimore sports fans notwithstanding) than anything else. Seriously, I know people who have planned their/their kids’ first game around which unit was being introduced so they get to see Ray dance. It’s basically a religious ritual.

As for self-aggrandizement, well that’s just a polite translation of “why these niggers have to dance so much?”

All I know is, I’m tired of Ray Lewis and his act. That ‘Ode to me, Me, ME!!!” before every game, is really tiresome. So, I guess that I’ll root for the ‘Niners,’ since they never moved from one city to another like the Ravens, and I don’t want to watch Ray-ray’s ‘Boogaloo to the Glory of Me, Myself, and I,” dance, if the Ravens win.

That’s not racist. I used to feel the same way about that sack happy guy from the Jets that used to do the damned dance every time he got a sack, even with his team behind by 20. Don’t remember his name. But he was white.
I cannot fucking stand the phony piety. FSM does not fucking care who wins football games. At least Saint Timothy of Tebow never suggested it was god’s will whether he won or lost. BTW he’s white, too.
c u n d gulag is not racist and never has been. And doesn’t really need me to defend him.

I didn’t care about him one way or the other as a player. I hate him as an announcer. The nasal whiny drawl coupled with the fractured syntax and the master of the obvious commentary just raises my hackles.

I grew up watching that tough son of a bitch qb the giants , so I can’t be objective. One more thing — when guys like Montana were crossing the picket line in 87, I heard him asked if he would cross. He said if “if ever crossed a picket line, my mom would never let me in the house again.”

A lot of members of the national media agree with you. Peter King put Simms in his top 20 QBs of all time in his big football book.

And that one game was pretty excellent. Where Simms may suffer by comparison is that every QB who has gone against a Dan Reeves team in the SB has rang up incredible numbers – Simms, Williams, Montana, and Elway. Doug Williams’ 5 TDs in one quarter is still unbelievable, especially coming from a QB who was average throughout his career. Against Montana and SF Reeves’ team let in a still-SB-record 55 points.

I haven’t been to the new stadium, but anyone who went to the old Giants Stadium will attest to how hard it was to throw the ball accurately, when there was even a moderate wind blowing.

And the wind was rarely moderate, there.

That, and the fact that that field had the highest crown in the league, so a QB had to account for what was basically a downhill throw to a receiver near any sideline, and it’s easy to say that Simms was one Hell of a good QB.

Simms was a remarkably accurate passer despite often playing in howling winds, on an always sloped field.

Having said all of that, I don’t mind him as an announcer.
Probably because I admired that tough, gritty SOB, who got me a Super Bowl which I never thought the Giants would win – because, if you grew-up watching the Giants from late-60’s, until after “The Fumble,” when they got George Young, and he drafed Simms and Taylor, if anyone said “Super Bowl,” the last team you thought about, was the Giants.
Ok, maybe the Jets back then, too.

Now, I’m not saying that Simms is Montana – but he wasn’t bad at all.
Not bad at all!

here i was just going to kill a few minutes reading the super bowl thread well after the fact when the chance to praise phil simms as a qb arose!

to add to what sherm and cund gulag said here, the two greatest coaches of simms’ playing days – walsh (who treasured accuracy above all else) and parcells (who treasured game management above all else) – both thought the world of simms.

we should also remember that if simms ever had a pair of wideouts as good as cruz and nicks to throw to, he would have thought he had died and gone to heaven: he had terrible – and i mean terrible – wide receivers throughout his career. his only first-rate pass-catcher was mark bavaro, his tight end: i’m willing to bet that, just as patrick ewing had the worst teammates of any of the all-time great centers, phil simms had worse receivers than any modern hall of fame qb.

and in addition to how hard it was to throw accurately in the meadowlands, let’s not forget that parcells, in those days, was a pure old-school run first, field position, count on your defense type coach (as the game changed, parcells changed his style, too, but not in the simms years).

The audience for Lewis is his team, not the fans. His act seems ridiculous to me, but I’ve never heard any sour grapes from ex-Ravens. Fans love to claim they know when a player is being a prick or not. But actually you don’t know whether a player is inspirational to his teammates or not!

How dare he bash a man who uses religion to rehabilitate a reputation tarnished by a murder indictment, a plea bargain, and a settlement with the victims’ families! BTW — have his clothes from that night ever been found?

I still have no earthly idea why this makes a difference to anyone at this point, given that the stabbing itself isn’t in dispute. I guess it would prove he lied about being there, but it would say nothing about the self-defense claim, and he plead to obstruction anyway.

As for the God thing, yeah it’s annoying, but there’s something to be said for defiance (for lack of a better term) if you actually didn’t do it. I mean, did you prefer Roethlisberger’s bizarre “I’m totally innocent but I’m sorry I raped that girl” interview two years ago?

The destruction by a defendant of physical evidence is irrelevant? Maybe god told him to get rid of his clothes that night. Hell, since god cared enough to root for the ravens to beat the 49ers last night, maybe he has helped Lewis get out of some tough spots in the past as well.

Off topic — but my assistant’s college-aged, little sister was at the bar that night with Roethlisberger and texted my assistant pictures of her and her friends drinking with him before the shit hit the fan.

The fuck does that mean or matter. Again, the point here is that unless you have some working theory as to how the clothes would have disproved the self-defense claim (and remember, it was the other two who were acquitted, not Ray), it’s more noise than anything else.

As for the (general, not necessarily raised by you) idea that taking a plea deal that doesn’t involve jail time and agreeing to a civil settlement is evidence of anything, well that’s just plain reactionary bullshit.

As for the (general, not necessarily raised by you) idea that taking a plea deal that doesn’t involve jail time and agreeing to a civil settlement is evidence of anything, well that’s just plain reactionary bullshit.

Agreed for the most part. Fleeing the scene, obstructing justice, and destroying evidence is much more suggestive of guilt than pleading out and paying off, which can be done for numerous reasons and is often advisable even in the absence of guilt.

Look, I really don’t even give much a shit, I’m just objecting to the notion that there has been too much Lewis bashing the past couple of weeks. I can’t imagine how that’s possible.

It’s a media thing, I guess. I mean, it’s not like CBS wants to bring it up any other time, but they shoehorn it into the broadcast in the fourth quarter? Shannon has to put the question to him during the Superbowl pregame show when they’ve been mum on it for a decade plus? I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Ravens’ fans to be irked by that, especially since there were plenty of non-Lewis stories you coud have played up.

There’s also the fact that the criticism all presupposes that he’s guilty. I mean, Sharpe asks him what he wants to say to the dead guys’ families?! The hell is he supposed to say? I’m sorry? Well again, if you didn’t do anything what the fuck are you sorry for?

Today’s real big game already took place: the World Championships in Bandy.

Russia defeated Sweden, 4-3.

If you ever wondered why European hockey values speed and technique more than North American hockey does, just watch a bandy match. When the Europeans adopted ice hockey, their background in bandy influenced how they played the new game.

Going into each Super Bowl game the Niners have played, I did figure they were likely to win– even the first one. I don’t know if it’s because I’m older, but I haven’t a clue about this one. I’ll say this: if both teams are clicking on all cylinders today, I think the Niners will win, because I believe they are superior to any or all NFL teams when they are clicking. But because that’s unlikely, all I can say is who knows? Not me.

boy, tough call there. flacco seems to have finally figured out how not to fuck up, at the worst possible moment, ala tony romo. neutral field, both teams seem relatively healthy. on paper, seems like it should be a close game. paper is only worth the paper it’s printed on.

yes, ray lewis is a self-aggrandizing, egotistical fuck. water is wet, politicians are venal, the sky is blue.

I think too often we ignore the role of coaching in a QB’s performance. Oh, we know it intellectually, but we still fall into the trap of evaluating them based on their numbers.

Steve Young was a random, albeit extremely talented, QB until some obscure dude named Shanahan took over as his coach. OTOH, Everett had a great start to his career but it collapsed when his coach moved on (forget the name) and he started making fundamental mistakes in the pocket.

Flacco has always had sparks of brilliance mixed with long bouts of mediocrety, but he’s also always had Cam (1-15) Cameron as his OC. It’s still too early to draw final conclusions, but under Caldwell he’s doing much better. Much bigger emphasis on the long bomb (which, if it gets intercepted, is usually equivalent to a punt so relatively low risk) and also more focus on attacking even in obvious run situations.

Flacco may prove, given better coaching, to be a much better QB than conventional wisdom has concluded.

Uhm…
That bomb, or extra fuel tank, or whatever the hell it is (since I know even less about fighter jets than I do about guns) dragging that close to the ground, like a man raking his cojones along a gravel driveway before having sex, might not be optimal.
No?

One crater hole on the runway, and BOOM, “Down goes the fighter! Down goes the fighter! DOWN GOES THE FIGHTER!!!”
Yeah – STRAIGHT UP IN THE AIR!

When Refs swallow the whistle is when the best coaches alert their teams to push the envelope. Belichek was great at that – back when he was winning Super Bowls his secondaries practically tackled the receivers before the ball arrived, but as the plays were called both ways it was really the fault of the opposing coach (ahem, Tony Dungy, ahem) for not adjusting.

Seems like John Harbaugh, who already has an incredible depth of playoff experience, has figured this out. The pick 6 against Denver would have been a defensive PI 95% of the time in the regular season. Tonight his secondary was erroring on the side of too much contact and, in most cases, getting away with it.

Only if the OL is actually standing in the end zone at the time, and I’m not sure they were. And in that case the penalty, if accepted, is to replay the down. Either way the Ravens win with that. Another smart coaching decision by the Ravens.

The scrum after the interception, though, how the fuck could they not call anything on Balto #29? He threw a couple punches in the battle on the ground, then when he got up he pushed a zebra. That’s throw him out behavior, for sure. Also an extra fifteen against the Ravens.

Well, what I’ve learned from the ads so far is that apparently it is “brave” to go up to the head cheerleader (or prom queen or whatever) and kiss her without her consent. I mean, I know that Superbowl ads tend towards the mysoginistic, but that was worse than I was expecting.

Honestly, if you’ve got Destiny’s Child together, make use of them for more than one song! I understand that Beyonce was the lead force in the group, and has had a stronger solo career, but DC was stronger than Beyonce.